Just a note, I believe the word you are referring to is sempai...and personally, I tend to avoid it outside of a strictly Japanese context. Western society doesn't really allow for the development of the sempai / kohai relationship. It tends to become easy to abuse even in the Japanese context, let alone outside of it.

Best,
Ron

Ron, you said it on your very first post. I am not misquoting... "Western society doesn't really allow for the development of the sempai/kohai relationship". I did add "outside of Japan", but a western society is outside of Japan, so you are splitting hairs in my opinion, but if you want it, I will give it to you. I still want to know what the acceptable level of Japanese is for you. You are correcting people on the use of Senior Student over Sempai in a dojo... oh I'm sorry... a "place of the Way" (unsolicited as it originally started in another topic for those of you who weren't here from the beginning) so as not to offend your delicate sensibilities. How is using a term that applies "being more Japanese than the Japanese"?